WILLIE CONTINUED

Nelson expands his concerns about the plight of our farmers to include wake up calls about the quality of the food we eat. In his article, Occupying the Food System, (a tribute to the Occupy Wall Street movement) Nelson persuasively makes the case about how concentrating food production into the hands of a few key industry players renders the market severely prone to pathological and well as legal abuses. Of these abuses, Nelson stated, No one knows this better than family farmers, whose struggle to make a living on the land has gotten far more dicult since corporations came to dominate our farm and food system. We saw signs of it when Farm Aid started in 1985, but corporate control of our food system has since exploded. From seed to plate, our food system is now even more concentrated than our banking system. Most economic sectors have concentration ratios hovering around 40 percent, meaning that the top four rms in the industry control 40 percent of the market. Anything beyond this level is considered "highly concentrated," where experts believe competition is severely threatened and market abuses are likely to occur. Farm Aid executive director Carolyn Mugar noted, The family farmer has never had a better friend than Willie Nelson; he has worked tirelessly to stand up for family farmers and the good food we all want. Spitting in the eye of authority is not limited to the agricultural sector; Nelson is the granddaddy of incorrigible artists who fooled the music industry by writing some of the most memorable and classic songs of all time before jumping the fence to cross-pollinate with any musical style that fancied his muse. Fairly early in his career, he outgrew the phase of bending to the system that feeds the country charts by immigrating non-country elements to stretch and blend artistic explorations with results that could never be dened by any one genre. One facet of Nelsons creativity is revealed in the diversity of duet partners who have recorded with him over the years including Wynton Marsalis; Norah Jones; Ziggy Marley; Toots and the Maytals; Irish legends, the Chieftains; Aaron Neville; Keb Mo; Julio Iglesias; and B.B. King, just to name a small fraction of his recorded duets. He continues the duet tradition on his newest album, Heroes. Prominent among the co-singers is his son, Lukas, gracing nine of the albums tracks with a twangy, edgy voice that blends beautifully with his elder. Sheryl Crow joins the two Nelsons on the Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan tune, Come On Up To The House, revealing the comfortable beauty that can be harvested behind Waits gravelly voice. Another son, Micah, joins his older brother and father on a

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rollicking paean entitled Come on Back Jesus with the tongue in cheek refrain, and pick up John Wayne on the way. On the albums most mischievous tune, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die, Nelson, Kris Kristoerson and Jamey Johnson are joined by rapper Snoop Dogg, showing how a common interest can bridge any musical genre. Heroes is a multi-textured work reecting a man who enjoys his life, and is comfortably himself inviting the company of family, friends and fans to listen in, sing along and enjoy a taste of artistry untouched by the manipulations of the corporate bankers who run the music industry. The album stands up to multiple listens and has a good chance of becoming another classic chestnut on the fertile tree of Willie Nelsons legacy. For more information about how you can join Willie Nelsons movement to save the American family farmer, and your own health in the process, visit www.FarmAid.org

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